Gay District

Former Twenties Group expands for men from 18 to 35

It’s not easy meeting new gay friends. Yes there’s the Internet, the bars and the clubs. But it can be tricky using those avenues to meet new folks without suggesting that it might be a ”more than friends” type of thing. Gay District, formerly known as the Twenties Group but now open to men 18 to 35, offers something a little different for guys looking to make new friends.

The group meets every Friday night at 8:30 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 1820 Connecticut Ave. NW, near Dupont Circle to talk about — well, whatever the moderator throws at you — before dinner or a night out at a local bar or club. The pre-party discussions are organized. For example, the Friday night I joined the group, the topic of discussion was age. A group member kicked off the meeting with an icebreaker: ”Do you have an age range when looking for Mr. Right?” It was enough to get the uninhibited conversation flowing. And the fact that we were in a church didn’t do much to water down the conversation either. ”She’s fucking Jesus!” one member shouted as we chatted about Madonna and other celebrities and their younger — or older — lovers.

At the end of the hour-long discussion, which whizzed by, the moderator summarized our overall consensus on the topic: Age is an important element to consider when dating, and some prefer to date within their own bracket, but the experiences we talked about on Friday proved that in most cases a person’s maturity, or lack thereof, sometimes doesn’t have much to do with age. For more on Gay District, e-mail gd@gaydistrict.org.